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Wednesday, 30 December 2015

Hi Folks, Georgie here today and I have a layout to share. Firstly, check out the picture... isn't she beautiful? IndigoBlu are releasing some vintage/olde-worlde style mixed media pictures called Lost Family. Perfect for scrapbookers!! The thing with old style photos/pictures is that they are so versatile and allows the user to take on any colour combination or style of layout that they wish. They work with everything!!!

So many new releases for stamps plus other bits coming up from IndigoBlu - seriously you won't want to miss them... Here is what I used in this layout and what you can look out for:

Hmmm... where do I start here :) ... Stencils, that's a good place!! The squares were made using the new 'Textures' stencil and IndigoBlu Texture Paste. Such a great little stencil with so much to choose from on it. The paint is Cinderella, a shimmery, metallic fuchsia pink, but watered down and spritzed to create a watercolour bleed effect - pretty darn good for an acrylic posing as a watercolour.

Just a little close up of some of the items used it the layout. You can, seriously, use anything near enough, to do a mixed media layout. I'm not talking bricks, but brick dust, perhaps? Okay should have gone with another example, but you can, buttons, twine, thread, nuts and bolts, cutlery, old packaging boxes. The trick with these kind of layouts is using your stamps to act as an extension of your layout, to soften the focus between the 'bits' and the paper behind. So... fancy giving something like this a go??? Any questions do ask and I will always be happy to help.

Monday, 28 December 2015

Hello everyone and welcome! Ksenija is here today and I am sharing probably last Holiday themed project this year. Only a few days left before we all discard old calendars and hang new ones. But we all want this season to last as long as possible.

Today I am demonstrating the project inspired by my pre-Christmas trip to Heidelberg, an old town close to Frankfurt with the magnificent fortress. I visited it during Christmas markets and loved it absolutely. So I made this canvas reminding me of Heidelberg and Christmas shopping.

I started with painting my canvas with Sleeping Beauty, Vodka Martini and Wimberry Pie paints.

While the background was drying, I stamped a snowflake border from the 'Here Comes Santa' stamp set with FlitterGlu on two pieces of PVC and applied Chariot of Fire MegaFlakes.

Then I painted a strip of watercolour paper with water diluted Sleeping Beauty and Vodka Martini paints. As soon as paints air dried I stamped repeatedly buildings from the A6 'Snow Globe' set in red archival ink and fussy cut out the city landscape.

To add dimension and also to cover some of seams I made several stars. I die cut each star four times from watercolour paper and once from Christmas Compendium card. Stacked them and glued. Then I applied Gee-Sso Good! in white with an old trimmed toothbrush and covered with a translucent paste. While the paste was wet, I sprinkled the stars with a mix of embossing enamels. When the paste dried and became transparent I heated enamel.

The focal image of a girl I fussy cut out from on of the Christmas Compendium Mini Postcards and adhered to a grunge board and cut out again.

To assemble my project, I adhered PVC sheets to the canvas with tiny glue dots, then the cityscape with a liquid glue, scattered the stars and adhered them with a a liquid glue also. To raise the focal image I used a foam tape.

I hope you enjoyed this project and you will use some of the techniques I demonstrated.

It would fit well with the latest IndigoBlu challenge 'All That Sparkles'; there's still plenty of time to enter and be in with a chance of winning some IndigoBlu stamps of your choice or seeing your work in the spotlight here on the IndigoBlu Blog!

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you all a Happy Prosperous New Year!

Wednesday, 23 December 2015

Hi there, it's Kay. Can't believe it's nearly Christmas, but I'm taking a break
and sharing this heart panel to show some of the new Mixed Media Papers being released to trade at the beginning of 2016.

I'm loving these new papers and unable to
decide which are my favourites, but the Lost Family and Arts and Crafts After
Morris sets are front runners!

I coloured the glamorous lady from the Lost Family paper set with Copic
markers and now it looks just like a old fashioned tinted photo! The edges have been
lightly distressed and covered withmore
Mega Flakes. The script is from the Tasty Textures stamp set and helps to add a little more glitz.

Flower shapes and patterns from the Arts and Crafts After
Morris 12x12 Mixed Media Paper pad were cut out, given a wash of Snow White paint then layered to frame the lady.

I had such fun making
this panel.Talking of fun, I wish you
all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Monday, 21 December 2015

It's our last challenge of the year, but what a challenge to end on, we want to see your 'All that Sparkles'. This could be glistening snow, running water, bling, icicles, mega flakes, glitter, metallic paints, anything you want it to be, and doesn't have to be Christmas either, just show us your sparkling creations, with Indigoblu stamps of course!

Of course, first there is the matter of our fabulous winner from last month's challenge..

The fabulous winner’s prize this month is your choice of IndigoBlu stamps.As always, you have 3 options to choose from:

1: 2 Large stamp plates

or
2: 4 Small stamp plates

or

3: 1 Large and 2 small plates

There’s also the Winner’s Badge, and one for the Top 3, to display proudly on your blog,and the WINNER of the challenge will also be invited to do a GUEST SPOT on a future Challenge Launch post.That’s right, your work will be on the Challenge Blog alongside the Design Team!

Also the Top Three each month (chosen by our lovely DT) will all be invited to do an inspiration piece to be included on the new reminder post that now goes live mid challenge. So, if you’d like a chance to be featured on the IndigoBlu Challenge Blog get those stamps out and get creating!

You’ll find all the information on how to enter the challenge,the rules (don’t worry, there’s not that many) and get to meet the Design Team in the tabs on the sidebar.

This month’s Top 3 fromthe 'Autumn Days' challenge, as chosenby the DT are...

Wow! Fantastic creations by our wonderful Challenge team, I hope you agree. I'm sure they'd love it if you hopped across to their blogs, you can find out how they made all these inspirational pieces there. And then of course we'd love to see your makes; it's what keeps us going, seeing all your fab creations!

And remember to pop back on Wednesday to see another inspirational make from International DT member Kay Molyneux; you really don't want to miss that one!

In some squares I applied Sheffield Steel and Winter Dawn Mega Flakes, and then used several IndigoBlu stamps randomly across both pages, including A6 Snowflakes, A6 Script Background, A6 Rain Droplets and A5 Grand Tour I.

The stamping was done with a mix of white IndigoBlu GeeSso Good! Gesso and Black StazOn ink.

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Hi Everyone, it's Beck Beattie here today to share with you some creative fun I had with my MegaFlakes! Oh how I love the metallic goodness that it brings to so many projects! I decided to create this altered bottle to share with you today and inspire you to pretty up your home.

.

I started out with this bottle I picked up at the dollar store, looking a bit bland and trying to be on trend. I knew this could make the prettiest bottle so I set about adding some glam to it.

Using my Mega Flakes Starter Kit I added some Winter Dawn Mega Flakes to some cardstock. I then die cut it as I find that trying to brush the megaflake from the die cut once it is cut out can be tricky as it catches easily. I then added it to the bottle along with some hessian, jewels and oh my what a difference it makes!

I hope you enjoyed my share today and I've inspired you to do some home decorating of your own.

Monday, 14 December 2015

I love finding ways to decorate my home or studio and I know I cannot be the only one that has a ton of magazines, craft and otherwise, around the house that need stored. I ran across a great clearance sale at my local Staples office supply store and could not help but think how beautiful they would be covered in beautiful IndigoBlu Mixed Media Papers. I've used some from the new European Grand Tour 12x12 pack.

Remember you can transform most anything with these gorgeous papers, the thickness and quality lends itself beautifully to home decor projects. I hope you will give this one a try.

This was not anywhere near my style, but it was only $2.00 so I could not resist!

Cover the entire outside surface of the magazine holder. Be sure to cut strips and wrap around the edges to make the edges look clean. Use a craft knife to cut around the front metal plate.

This is a magazine holder, but filled it with my holiday catalogues to remind me to check them out for holiday shopping before I forget, then I will fill with magazines.

Friday, 11 December 2015

Hi everyone and welcome! I've got a new mixed media canvas to share with you but before that some big news...

Until now the IndigoBlu International Design Team have posted their amazing pieces of inspiration and sneak peeks of new product on the IndigoBlu blog and the fabulous Challenge Design Team have shared their beautiful work alongside our winners and guests here on the IndigoBlu Challenge blog. So you've had to make the journey to two places for your 'fix' of IndigoBlu inspiration. Well not any more...

From today you'll find both teams, the inspiration, the challenges, the news, the winners, the prizes, the offers and all those sneak peeks in one place - here at the revamped IndigoBlu Blog. You'll be able to follow us easily and see the latest posts coming up straight away - just make sure you become a follower!!! We look forward to seeing you here...

More news? OK then. Back by popular demand, Kay Halliwell-sutton will be on your screens again this weekend with some fabulous shows on Hochanda. See her there on Saturday 12th Dec 2015 - 8pm, and Sunday 13th Dec 2015 - 7am, 9am, 12pm, 4pm and 7pm.

Now for that canvas. Anyone who's followed me on my blog over the past few months knows I finally got to add a big tick to my 'bucket list' by taking a romantic trip to Venice with my wonderful hubby. Talk about inspiring (Venice I mean, not hubby bless him - although he's special in his own way!) I took hundreds of photos and got lost in the magic of that incredible city. So when we were given some new 'European Grand Tour' Mixed Media Papers to play with I was beside myself with one particular design - a view of the Canal Grande looking down towards the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. I added it to a canvas board and then the fun began!

It really didn't need much to enhance this beautiful paper; I scratched at the edges to distress the canvas, added an initial layer of dilute Gee-Sso Good! gesso in places, spritzed some dilute Goldfinger Metallic paint to add to the warmth, stamped some messy black areas using the 'Tasty Textures' stamp set and used clear texture paste through the coordinating 'Texture' stencil as a base for more embellishments. Having worked out where I would put one of my many photos, I added some pieces of lace, a few beads and pearls, some brass buttons and trinkets, moulded elements (including the frame) and metallic threads. Some more dabs of gesso helped make the Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Mists work well to colour these textures. The sentiment comes from the Grand Tour I stamp set - it seemed utterly appropriate! Now for some close ups...

Now I've gone to town a bit on this and enjoyed every minute of it, but I'm sure you'll agree the paper does most of the hard work on this canvas. Want it? Need it? Start bugging your retailers for European Grand Tour Mixed Media Papers as they'll be released to the trade in January along with the Tasty Textures stamps and Textures stencil.

That's it for now. Don't forget, you'll find everything IndigoBlu including more new releases here at the IndigoBlu Blog now so make sure you're a follower. And tune in to see Kay this weekend!

Have a great weekend, and whatever you're up to take care of yourselves.

Its such a thrill to be asked to join the talented team as a Guest Designer for the winter blues challenge. It's also a great excuse to play with my new metallic acrylic paints to decorate these MDF baubles. I used Sleeping Beauty and Vodka Martini for the background and then used lots of different Indigo Blu Christmas stamps with White Gee-so good to stamp the images. I added dimension with Snow White paint and gilded the edges with Winter Dawn gilding flakes.

Hi, Wanda here. Last month I was the lucky
winner of my choice of fabulous IndigoBlu stamps. Wow! How lucky am I? I was
asked to do another project as a bit of mid-term inspiration. So I decided to
create a candle centrepiece for our Christmas table. My dining room is blue so
this was an ideal opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (horrible saying
that, isn't it?).

Friday, 4 December 2015

Today is reminder day for the Indigoblu challenge, and this month it's 'Winter Blues'. We'd love you to enter your Indigoblu makes, with blue tones in. That's all we ask, Indigoblu stamps and a bit of blue!

The prize on offer this month is:

1: 2 Large stamp plates

or2: 4 Small stamp plates

or

3: 1 Large and 2 small plates

There’s also the Winner’s Badge, and one for the Top 3, to display proudly on your blog, and the WINNER of the challenge will also be invited to do a GUEST SPOT on a future Challenge Launch post. That’s right, your work will be on the Challenge Blog alongside the Design Team!

Also the Top Three each month (chosen by our lovely DT) will all be invited to do an inspiration piece to be included on the new reminder post that now goes live mid challenge. So, if you’d like a chance to be featured on the IndigoBlu Challenge Blog get those stamps out and get creating!

You’ll find all the information on how to enter the challenge, the rules (don’t worry, there’s not that many) and get to meet the Design Team in the tabs above.

We have some fab inspiration for you from our lovely ladies, I hope it inspires you to enter! (Just think of that extra Christmas present for yourself!).